{"id":91530,"date":"2025-02-27T04:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T04:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/no-18-memphis-fends-off-stubborn-effort-by-rice\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T04:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T04:54:15","slug":"no-18-memphis-fends-off-stubborn-effort-by-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/no-18-memphis-fends-off-stubborn-effort-by-rice\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 18 Memphis fends off stubborn effort by Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"NCAAFeb 26, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Tigers forward Dain Dainja (42) shoots against Rice Owls forward Jimmy Oladokun, Jr. (24) during the first half at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Imagn Images <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
\n

Dain Dainja had game highs of 25 points and 10 rebounds as No. 18 Memphis pulled away in the last two minutes for an 84-72 American Athletic Conference win over visiting Rice on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

PJ Haggerty added 21 points and five assists for the Tigers (23-5, 13-2 AAC), while Nicholas Jourdain contributed 19 points and nine rebounds. Memphis shot 49.2 percent from the field in securing a season sweep of the Owls.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

Caden Powell scored 19 points to lead four players in double figures for Rice (13-16, 4-12). Denver Anglin added 14 points, Andrew Akuchie had 12 and Kellen Amos came off the bench for 11.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

Despite making only 41.4 percent from the field, the Owls had a legitimate chance to pull the upset after Powell’s dunk tied the score at 70 with 3:51 left. They even got a stop and had possession with an opportunity to take the lead.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

But a steal by Colby Rogers led to Tyrese Hunter’s short jumper at the 2:39 mark. The bucket ignited a game-ending 14-2 run.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

One pregame storyline was whether Memphis could push its conference lead to 1 1\/2 games over idle North Texas and UAB. Meanwhile, Rice was trying to build on a 71-50 win over Tulsa on Saturday that snapped a four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

It was all Tigers in the first five minutes as they established Dainja for seven quick points and a 13-3 lead. The margin was 12 when Rogers made two free throws at the 11:28 mark, and it appeared Memphis would have an easy game.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

But the Owls hit them with a 12-2 run to pull within 23-21 on Powell’s layup with 8:04 remaining. Memphis restored a nine-point advantage on two occasions before settling for a 39-32 cushion at the break on a free throw by Haggerty with five seconds left.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb 26, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Tigers forward Dain Dainja (42) shoots against Rice Owls forward Jimmy Oladokun, Jr. (24) during the first half<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}